Soccer Headline

Two goals from sophomore Lindsay Thompson, including
a penalty kick in overtime, gave the No. 10 University of Florida soccer team
(7-3, 1-0 SEC) a 2-1 OT win over Kentucky (3-3-3, 0-1 SEC) Friday evening at
the James G. Pressly Stadium.

It was the second consecutive year Florida opened
Southeastern Conference play with an overtime win. The Gators defeated Georgia 2-1 in OT in the 2008 league opener held at Pressly Stadium.

It was Thompson who also had the game-winning goal in overtime
in the last meeting between these two teams. Florida fell behind Kentucky 2-0 after the first 38 minutes of their 2008 meeting in Lexington, Ky., but the Gators scored three unanswered goals, including the winner by Thompson in the
103rd minute, to take the 3-2 2OT win.

The penalty kick was awarded Friday when UK’s Jenna Goblirsch fouled freshman Erika Tymrak in the middle of the box. Tymrak
told Thompson to take the shot and she wasted no time after the official gave
the signal, placing the ball untouched into the net.

Although the players decided on the field who was to take
the penalty kick, their selection matched up precisely with what UF Head Coach Becky
Burleigh was thinking.

Did You Know…

Florida has been pushed to overtime in

four of the last eight SEC season

openers, including the last two.

Florida in SEC Openers

Date

SEC Opener

Result

9/8/95

@Kentucky

W, 2-1

9/13/96

Kentucky

W, 2-0

9/12/97

Kentucky

W, 4-0

9/11/98

Tennessee

W, 4-0

9/10/99

Kentucky

W, 2-1

9/29/00

Tennessee

W, 3-0

9/7/01

@LSU

W, 3-0

9/29/02

@South Carolina

L, 0-1 OT

10/3/03

Alabama

W, 5-0

9/24/04

@Alabama

W, 1-0

9/23/05

Alabama

T, 2-2 2OT

9/22/06

@Auburn

W, 3-1

9/28/07

@Georgia

L, 2-1

9/26/08

Georgia

W, 2-1 OT

9/25/09

Kentucky

W, 2-1 OT

“We actually practiced penalty kicks this week. The
players came out a little bit early each practice to take PKs. I have a rating
system and she (Thompson) rated the highest, so that’s who I would have chosen.
We allow them to decide on the field and she stepped up to the plate,” Burleigh
said. “I was happy for her.”

Tymrak and Thompson also were involved in Florida’s first
goal Tymrak crossed the ball into the box. Lindsay Thompson received the
ball in space and took a seven-yard shot that UK goalkeeper Sydney Hiance got her
hands on but couldn’t control and the ball scored at 13:26.

“Erika
started out wide. She decided to dribble it inside so I decided to take her
space outside,” Thompson said. “She saw that I was wide open so she played me a
beautiful ball. I just whacked it and it went in.”

The first Wildcat shot of the match came off a breakaway by
redshirt junior Giuleana Lopez in the 52nd minute. She brought the
ball in the box but UF goalkeeper Katie Fraine was in position to stop
Lopez’s eight-yard shot.

Lopez did score in the 57th minute in a play she
created when she won the ball at the touchline and sent it up to Stefanie
Kildare. Kildare sent the ball back to Lopez who was making a run toward the
goal. Lopez took a touch and then scored on a 13-yard far post shot. Of the
last five goals scored by the Wildcats in matches versus the Gators, Lopez has
scored two goals and added an assist.

Both team had opportunities to get the go-ahead goal. In the
78th minute, Brooke Thigpen crossed the ball from the endline
into the box. Thompson and Angela Napolitano were in the box, but
neither could make a play on the ball before UK cleared it.

In the 86th minute, Tahnai Annis brought
the ball into the right side of the box and took a near post shot, but it was
blocked by a UK defender. The deflection was gathered up by Tymrak just above
the endline. She crossed the ball but it just missed Thompson at the far post.

Fraine was forced to make key saves in the second half and
in overtime to keep the Kats from scoring again. Lopez looked to take advantage
of a Wildcat block on a Florida clear attempt in the 77th minute.
She raced toward the loose ball in the box, but Fraine dove to grab the ball on
the ground just before Lopez could get a foot on it. Fraine also made a diving
save in the 94th minute on a 12-yard shot by Laura Novikoff. The
save in overtime on Novikoff’s shot to the far post was key for Fraine and for
the Gators.

“It felt really good to be able to help my team like that,
especially when it's overtime and its do or die. I remember seeing her turn and
thinking, 'Shes going to shoot, she's going to shoot, get set' so I got set.
She ripped it to the back post. It’s like everything that we practiced all
year: my feet went, my arms extended. I didn’t really have to think about it,
it just kind of happened,” Fraine said. I was more surprised that I caught it
more so than saved it.”

The Gators
continue SEC home action by playing host to Vanderbilt (6-2-1, 0-1 SEC) Sunday,
Sept. 27 at 2 p.m. The Commodores lost 2-1 at South Carolina Friday evening.
Sunday’s match is the first of six Florida regular-season matches that will be
televised this season. The match can be seen live on Comcast SportsSouth
(Gainesville/Ocala Cox cable channel 259). Cameron Broome and Bernie Guenther
will call the action.

The match
can also be heard on WRUF AM 850, by simulcast on Cox Channel 946
(Gainesville/Ocala) or on www.GatorZone.com with Adam Schick and
Matthew Stubbington covering the action.